Wednesday, November 5, 2014

What's going on in Hebrew school?

Every Tuesday from 4-5:45pm at Lakeside Congregation our students from Kitah Aleph through Kitah Dalet learn, read, drill, sing, play games and sometimes even pose for pictures and an iMovie. I am the Kitah Aleph teacher and watching my students go from knowing no written Hebrew at the beginning of the year to being able to recognize all the letters and vowels and to read simple prayers is a wonderful feeling.

Kitah Aleph 2014

Teaching Kitah Aleph also gives me the opportunity to get to know students who are in our program. As they get closer to B'nai Mitzvah I am also the staff person who works with them on their D'vrei Torah, speech for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Watching as our students grow into young adults is a perk of the job. I take great satisfaction in watching them go through our system and learn to read Hebrew. I tell new parents that although our curriculum concentrates on Hebrew needed for t'filot, (prayers) we do teach some conversational Hebrew along the way. Our students will not be able to get off the airplane in Tel Aviv and get directions to your hotel but they do all have a working knowledge of Hebrew. Most of our students have the opportunity to take Hebrew in our local High Schools and I know that our Lakeside Students have done well in these programs.

This year we also welcome Todd Kessler, our song leader who is leading song sessions during Hebrew school. It gives us more time to learn how to sing prayers and Hebrew songs. This week we concentrated on learning the prayers and melody for the Havdalah ceremony.

Kitah Aleph 2014

If you want to see a time lapse video of my class and all we do in one afternoon here you go. There are some pictures of my class as well as regular video. It's not long and I hope you have a taste of what we do on almost every Tuesday during the school year.